As digital communications media such as the Internet become increasingly commonplace, users become more and more reliant upon the security and availability of such media. Indeed, portable communications devices such as telephones, personal digital assistants, portable computers and the like are widely carried and relied upon by consumers for continuous communications. Similarly, networks are increasingly relied upon in industrial, governmental, homeland defense, military and other applications. In the military setting in particular, it can be very important that certain communications be quickly and accurately received without creating undue congestion on the network.
Computer networks generally operate using a variety of protocol “languages” that allow different nodes to communicate with each other. Many of these protocols are widely deployed on the public Internet and elsewhere, and are therefore referred to as “Internet Protocols”. In particular, the TCP/IP family of protocols has been widely deployed in public, private and governmental settings. These protocols, while widely used, can have a number of inherent drawbacks in certain settings. In the case of transmitting a short but very important message, for example, conventional TCP/IP options can be relatively limited. The widely-used User Datagram Protocol (UDP) described in Internet RFP 768, for example, can be relatively fast, but does not guaranty reliable delivery. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) described in Internet RFC 793 is more reliable, but can be relatively slow if the network is congested or otherwise unreliable. Various attempts have been made to create more reliable forms of UDP (e.g. Internet RFCs 908 and 1151), with varying levels of success.
In addition to packet loss inherent in many types of communications, certain types of highly sensitive, critical precedence messages are often packet encrypted prior to transmission over a shared core network to prevent unauthorized eavesdropping on the message. In instances where transmission errors occur, encryption can introduce additional complications by dropping packets containing even a single bit error. That is, at the receiver side, the decryption device can erase any packet received with even minor errors to prevent against hostile attack. To the receiving session or application layer, this erasure appears as a packet dropped during transmission. The packet erasure introduced by cryptography can further complicate reliable and efficient communication.
As a result, it remains desirable to create systems and techniques for reliably delivering short yet important messages across a digital network. Other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.